As a freelance content strategist I get to run social media sites for a number of clients. As of late, I have noticed a certain rule applying to Twitter in particular. The follower numbers depend on a niche of the business. Yes, you might get dozens of followers a day by simply being in the right market.

How do I know this?

I have been running Twitter page for a health supplement business, writing posts about nutrition, fitness and a right diet. And their following grows each day by at least 10. Yes, 10 new followers every day, that is counting the overall number. I’m not taking into account people who un-follow that page. So the follower numbers grow by 10 each day – it might be even 15, if considering 5 possible un-follows.

That is remarkable

On the other hand, a clothing brand whose page I also run gets only 3-4 new followers each week. Yes, each week! That’s relatively less than a health and fitness brand. The content is written following the same rule – 20% pitching and 80% entertaining. So why’s the difference?

Followers with different objectives

People who follow nutrition and fitness brands do so in order to learn something new, get healthy and feel better. They do so in order to benefit in some way. That cannot be said of following a fashion brand. While the followers do want to learn more about that business, they won’t benefit as much as they would learning new diet tips or exercise plan.

So do not despair when seeing your followers’ numbers don’t grow as rapidly as you hoped – be persistent and keep creating entertaining worthy posts. Good tip is to have a great mix of content, don’t talk only about your products – that can be boring. The most successful brands vary their posts. Just check ASOS Twitter page – they post of the latest celebrity trends, give tips how to dress to keep up warm / cool, the possibilities are endless!

Well, this question has been asked on one of the web designer forums. I can see where the seller is coming from – they have started a business, launched a successful Facebook business page and acquired 6,000 ‘likes’ so far. Now, as they close the business down, they want to monetize on their hard work – and good kudos to them! But, is it as easy as that?

Part of the bigger package

By the end of the day, the Facebook page belongs to this particular business. I assume they are not selling it, as the Facebook page would be part of the whole package. So, is it moral to sell a business page in a defined niche to somebody else (with a different niche) in order to monetize on the ‘likes’?

In my opinion, it just won’t make sense. If you have followers who love your products, let’s say scented candles, they won’t continue with their loyalty if this page will switch owners and suddenly start posting about dog grooming. It is predictable – the likes might be there at the beginning, but even if they persist, they won’t translate into sales. By the end of the day, the same people who liked your scented candles, might not necessarily be dog owners, or be passionate about pet grooming.

Likes won’t translate into sales

So selling Facebook page (which technically you do not own) can only make sense if it sold as a part of business package – the business is taken over by somebody else, who is going to continue selling the same products in the same niche.

What are your thoughts? Have you ever considered selling your Facebook page on its’ own?

I have been using Buffer for my social media for few months now and I love its’ simplicity. No fuss, no need to pass the fork lifter’s test in order to operate it.

I picked it as having used Hootsuite few years back, I found it over complicated. This scheduling platform aims to deliver as many options as possible – especially for monitoring the performance – but the multiple tabs can overwhelm the newcomers. And I’m not the only one, number of my clients hesitate using it as they panic they wouldn’t know how to set it up correctly.

hootsuite can overwhelm

Yet last week, I had to convert. My new client, selling meal replacement shakes, opted to manage his social media sites via Hootsuite. He did set it up, but connected three Facebook accounts (his business page, personal page and other one) in a stream, instead of three different platforms. And I’m not surprised, once you find yourself facing the Hootsuite dashboard, your initial reaction, is ‘blimey! You just don’t know where to start.

buffer is user friendly

Luckily it was surprisingly easy to re-arrange it and set it up again. I love the separate streams that allow me to monitor Twitter mentions and replies. Now I love this dashboard as I can see right away what is happening – it is indeed a powerful platform. Yet I still use Buffer for my own social media. I love the little Bufferapp to share any content online right away. I just click on the little icon in the top right corner of my screen and it loads the sharing window as a pop-up. I don’t even have to leave the page. It even pulls the highlighted text automatically as a new post. Perfect.

Like this:

We all know of social media impact on business. Pinterest is now cited as a platform driving most valuable sales. Each site can bring a lot of traffic, if used to a full potential. So how can you make the most of your 140 characters (or less) to grab users’ imagination in a busy world of social media? There’s 4 simple tips to remember.